


raindrops on roses

by Purpleyin, RedPaladin465



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Flowers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Forehead Kisses, Language of Flowers, Snowbarry Spot April Minibang, Spring, Team Dynamics, Team Flash, adorkable children are adorkable, all the flowers, all the rain scenes, graphics with fic, pretty pretty art
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23954983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purpleyin/pseuds/Purpleyin, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedPaladin465/pseuds/RedPaladin465
Summary: When Cisco is injured trying to bring down a new meta, Caitlin is weighed down by the guilt of knowing that his injuries are (kind of) her fault. Barry, in true Barry fashion, has an idea to hopefully help her feel better.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Ralph Dibny & Cisco Ramon & Caitlin Snow, Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon & Caitlin Snow, Ralph Dibny & Cisco Ramon
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43
Collections: Snowbarry Spot Discord Server - April Minibang





	raindrops on roses

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya, Flash fam!!
> 
> This is witten for the Snowbarry Spot April Minibang, with themes centering around spring and new beginnings (and also my first time participating in a bang!). Of the prompts in the list, I went with "healing" and "in the rain". I have NEVER done something like this before, so hopefully, this lived up to all them flower-centric fics out there because your girl Claire does not do flowers. Even if they are so very pretty. Additionally, this fic was not supposed to break like 4k since we have a 10k word limit for this minibang, but, well, as you can see...this fic kinda just grew on its own. LOL. There also may or may not be a Kingdom Hearts reference or two somewhere in here. And a very vague LOTR reference ;p
> 
> I mean, also, with the way this story turned out, how could I NOT title this as a reference to Sound of Music? :)
> 
> A HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to Purpleyin for being SO AWESOME and the best artist partner for this minibang! Every graphic you see in this fic is created by them. The graphics are super gorgeous. And Hans is super amazing.
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the Flash/DCTV

"Frost! Behind you!"

Flash's voice rang across the battered street, against the wind and the rain that was hitting their bodies with a violence never seen before. Just in time, Frost let out a jet of ice from her fingers, propelling herself over the sudden gust of water that had been shooting toward her. As soon as both her boots were on the ground, she raised both her hands up, freezing mist shooting from her fingers and pulling the rain that was pelting them in to create a large dome around her; Flash and Vibe both hurriedly made their way into the shelter before she closed it, encasing them in. She used her ice breath briefly afterward to reinforce her dome, praying it was enough to not let the water in.

"Using her powers against her, I like it," Vibe said, nodding as he took in the crystalline structure.

Flash bent over, shaking the water from his suit. "We needed to regroup. Good thinking, Frost."

This new meta, nicknamed 'Rainfell', didn't sound all that threatening when the alert first started blaring in S.T.A.R. Labs--after all they had dealt with, a meta who could _make it rain_ was a nice reprieve from all the other ones that tried to kill them on a daily basis, but this meta proved to be a far more difficult adversary than Team Flash had anticipated her to be.

"Her real name is Willa Dohring," Ralph said into their earpieces. With Vibe on the field, he took over the comms back in the Cortex. “She was an eco-conservationist partnering with Mercury Labs before they let her go. I guess she was a dormant meta. Or at least, one who has never used her powers before, because prior to this, her record’s completely clean.”

Frost stared grumpily at the wall of ice, carefully watching for any thinning or weakening in her stronghold as the rain continued to slam against it. “Well, I’m tired of cosplaying as a wet rag,” she growled, glaring harder at the wall as Ralph’s chuckle came through the comms. “Not funny.”

To her consternation, Flash and Vibe also grinned at her, not even bothering to hide their amusement. If she were really, really honest with herself though, their humor cheered her up a little, despite how ridiculously cold _and she never got cold_ and uncomfortable she was. In the back of her head, she heard Caitlin’s warm laugh as well.

_Don’t they just grow on you?_

She let out a snarl completely devoid of any heat at her counterpart, causing her to laugh once again.

“Think we can surprise her if we breach out and attack her on all sides?” Vibe asked, flexing his hands. “Delta maneuver?”

Flash grinned at the name, and then lowered himself into a runner’s stance. Frost readied herself next to him, and with a nod from the red-clad superhero, Vibe concentrated on the vibrational energy of the meta that was standing, quite literally, outside of their icy shelter. He focused the energy, his left hand directing the breach to one very specific point in time and space and another in his right, then blasted both of breaches to life, and Flash and Frost ran into the ones that appeared in front of them. Their maneuver was a pincer attack that allowed for Flash and Frost to breach behind or to the side of the meta while Vibe breached to face the meta head-on to serve as the distraction, able to act offensively and defensively with both his vibe blasts and breaches. Frost was their big offensive gun, and Flash was there to apprehend the meta. And if the meta tried to run, well, the fastest man alive would be on their tail in nanoseconds.

It was a fairly foolproof tactic when they came up with it, and this battle was to be no exception—until they launched an all-round attack at Rainfell, and she _turned into water_ , dropping down into the puddle on the asphalt.

“ _What_?!” Vibe screeched. “How is that fair?!”

Flash snapped out of his shock. “Elongated Man, are you seeing this?!”

“Yeah, I’m seeing this,” Ralph replied, picking his jaw up off the Cortex floor. Literally. “We’re going to need a waterproof pipeline cell.”

Frost opened her mouth to say something, but before they could gather their confused and frazzled senses, the sound of rushing water hit their ears and the rainwater behind them shaped into a person—their meta-at-large—that had Vibe breaching and Flash running Frost out of the way before all three of them were hit by the new wave of rain that came toward them.

“Spread out!”

Rainfell raised her hand, and rain came down on Flash and Vibe like bullets, but Frost stretched her hands out and _pushed_ , the frigid mist shooting from her fingers to stop the rain all around her. Enraged, Rainfell gathered a giant globe of water and flung it at Frost, who immediately tried to freeze the water. The meta didn’t give up though, and directed more and more rainwater into the deadly ball of half solid ice, half water now hanging between them that could probably pulverize Frost if she got hit by it. To counter the increasing size, Frost shot more mist from her fingertips, freezing the ball more and more, until it became a grotesquely growing structure as she and Rainfell fought for the upper hand.

“Frost!” Vibe yelled at her, managing to vibe blast and breach through the onslaught of raindrops and closer to where she and Rainfell were holding each other at bay. “That thing looks like it’s gonna blow, you have to get out of there! I’m going to open a breach behind you!”

He raised his hand to focus the vibrational energy, but Rainfell simply waved her hand and redirected an enormous slew of rainwater toward him, chasing him as he leapt between breaches.

“ _No_!” Frost yelled back, concentrating on the massive, half-frozen ball of water suspended between her and the meta. “This thing is big enough to kill someone, we can’t just let it go!”

Thinking quickly, Vibe breach-jumped his way closer to the scarlet streak of lightning that was zipping around, trying to outrun the water he was surrounded by. “ _Flash_! If we can get close enough, can you move that entire thing so that Frost can get a clear shot??”

Flash nodded. “You have to let Frost know!” he hollered back. Vibe immediately breached back to Frost, opening his mouth to tell her the plan as soon as he ran out of the breach to her right, but the sight of her iced-over eyes stopped him cold in his tracks.

“It’s gonna blow, _get out of here_!” she nearly shrieked, straining with the effort to keep the half-glacier at bay.

“ _You_ need to get out of here!” he shrieked right back at her. The glacier was wobbling dangerously now; they needed to _move_ , regroup, then take down Rainfell before she wrecked the city any more than she already had with her destructive powers.

To their horror, a loud _CRACK_ sounded and bounced off the nearby buildings, echoing up and down the desolate street. In a split second, Frost and Caitlin made their decision. Letting out a fierce cry, she pulled one hand shooting ice away from the mass in front of her and pointed it at the ground under Vibe, blasting the broken pavement with frost to slide him as far away from the explosion as possible. At least, that was what she had intended to do…but as soon as she wrenched her hand away, there was no way Frost could have sustained the massive _thing_ with only one hand; it knocked her completely off-balance, her ice blast catching Vibe’s leg as it pushed him back.

Vibe let out a pained yell, and Flash immediately ran to his aid, pulling him away from the blast radius as the two looked back at Frost, breaths caught in their throats as another _CRACK_ rang through the destroyed street, and then with the force of a bomb, it _exploded_.

Both Frost and Rainfell were picked up and thrown backwards by the exploding water pressure, large blocks and shards of ice flying at both of them as they fell. The debris flew into Rainfell’s face, knocking her out cold on the broken pavement. She wasn’t seriously injured, if the lack of wounds and standard battle bruises was anything to go by. Flash quickly made sure she was still breathing, just in case. Frost, on the other hand, had a long shard of ice sticking out from her side, and her bruises were evident on her snow-white skin.

Making sure that Vibe was all right and settled, Flash immediately zoomed over to Frost to help her up, sweeping his eyes up and down her form and taking stock of her injuries, beginning to panic upon seeing the ice protruding from her. Catching his gaze, Frost waved him off.

“I’m fine, it’s better than it looks,” she said immediately, gesturing to Rainfell instead. “Caity and I will heal. Take her in first.”

Despite his urge to stay with her, Flash knew he needed to get the meta back to S.T.A.R. Labs and completely waterproof the pipeline cell, all before she woke up. Nodding once, he picked Rainfell up, running back to the Lab. Frost sighed, holding her side and making her way over to Vibe, who was sitting on the floor and clutching his leg. Ice had torn its way through the protective material of his suit, exposing patches of swollen red skin that were pale on the edges along with bruises and abrasions up and down his leg. She bit the inside of her cheek.

“I’m sorry,” she said to him. “This was my fault.”

_That…does not look good._

Frost squeezed her eyes shut, hearing Caitlin’s solemn pre-assessment of the situation. Despite how long it had been since she officially joined Team Flash, there were times where she still struggled with the weight of guilt and friendship, and how the two went hand in hand. Vibe managed a grimace at her through the pain.

“It’s not your fault, you know,” he told her. “It’s _not_. You tried to get me out of there. I know that. Everyone knows that. And you…got hurt in the process too.”

Before she could say anything back to him—another round of _sorrys_ and whatever else she could bring herself to say with the overwhelming sense of _guilt_ she felt weighing her stomach down—Flash ran back to them. Wordlessly, Frost gestured to Vibe, and he nodded, carefully hoisting him up and running him back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

 _It’s not your fault_ , Caitlin insisted. _You were being the hero. You tried your best._

“I know that,” Frost replied with a bite in her tone that Caitlin brushed aside. Maybe she would go back and have a nice, long talk with her life coach about this whole guilt thing. She felt worse, though, knowing that even though she and Caitlin were separate from each other, in a way, Caitlin would feel the weight of her emotions too, even after she receded back into the recesses of their mind. Caitlin would be the one to treat Cisco, and Caitlin would be the one carrying around the guilt too, for being unable to help, unable to do more.

With no one nearby, white waves melted into chestnut ones, and by the time Flash arrived back at the intersection Caitlin was waiting for him at barely a minute later, her drenched suit dripping onto the pavement, she was already in tears.

* * *

“I just thought of one good thing in this whole mess,” Cisco said with a grin that turned into a grunt of pain as Caitlin continued to sterilize and bandage his wounds in her lab back at S.T.A.R. Labs, with Barry’s steady hands helping. “At least Barry isn’t on the one laying here this time.”

Said superhero let out an amused huff. “Well, I’m glad to see that you’re still well enough to crack jokes.”

Cisco shrugged. “Gotta find humor in it somehow, right?”

Caitlin was silent throughout the whole exchange; she smiled at their antics, but she never stopped biting her bottom lip. While Barry patched up Cisco’s more minor wounds, she carefully treated and then wrapped gauze around his frostbitten shins, the ice creating burns up and down his foot and his leg.

“See, I always knew Frost was powerful, but that right there,” Ralph said from the swivel chair, “ _wow_.”

Barry glowered from the side, nodding meaningfully over at Caitlin, who had dropped her head, trying to pretend she hadn’t been paying attention to what he just said. Eyes widening at the implications of his words, Ralph frantically tried to backtrack. “Uh, I mean, well, hey, Frost got him out, right? I mean, you were there too, Caitlin, so you did too, so—”

By God, they adored Ralph, they did, but he had his moments. Cisco sighed.

“Okay, for real, Caitlin. You’re seeing my injuries and you’re treating them and bandaging them, and I’m not even the one who got _impaled_ _on an_ _icicle_ —”

“Wait, wait,” Ralph cut him off. “Caitlin got stabbed?!”

Done with his part and after having checked Cisco over for any injuries he might have missed, Barry snapped his gloves off and walked around the bed, pulling back Caitlin’s white coat to reveal her Frost suit with the dark copper stain that marred her side. Before walking into her lab to Cisco, she had grabbed Barry’s arm, braced herself, and _yanked_ the large piece of ice out, nearly passing out. Barry almost yelled at her when he saw the large, bloodstained icicle in her hand, but was stopped when her eyes flashed white and she held a hand up to her side, freezing mist closing over the wound as a makeshift bandage.

Ralph rolled backwards on the chair in surprise, his gaze cutting back up to her. “And you’ve been walking around with this the _entire time_ you’ve been working on Cisco?! Caitlin, what the _he_ —”

“I’m fine,” she said a little too brusquely, almost brushing him off. “Frost and I are fine. Our ice healing is taking care of it.”

Once upon a time, he might have been taken aback at her tone, but after fighting and working alongside Caitlin and Frost for so long, Ralph could see she didn’t mean to fling the hostility toward him. He stood up from the swivel chair, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“You’ve healed, and Barry’s healed. Cisco will be fine too. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Ralph’s right, you know,” Cisco grunted as she took care of the last patch of frostbitten skin.

Irritably, Caitlin snapped her gloves off, the words bursting out of her before she could stop herself. “Cisco! You’re—you’re—you’re you!”

The boys all glanced at each other, thoroughly confused. The engineer on the bed raised an eyebrow at her. “…Yeeeeeeees…?”

She made a frustrated gesture with her hand, waving it around in the air above him. “I mean, Frost and I have ice healing, Barry’s got his healing abilities, and Ralph is impenetrable, but you don’t have any of that to protect you! Once you get hurt, you have to wait it out and recover just like anyone else!”

And there it was, the second part of the guilt she was carrying. All three of them were silent after her outburst, and after a moment, Caitlin bit her lip, squeezed Cisco’s hand, and walked out of her lab.

* * *

“Cait.”

A warm hand caught her elbow just as she stomped into the Cortex, gentle and firm at the same time, the same one that held hers on many occasions since they first met. This was the hand that gave her comfort and stability and encouragement, the one that made her feel better with a gentle grasp of her fingers.

His touch didn’t quite have the calming effect it usually did, though. The doctor looked up to see Barry’s familiar green eyes, looking at her with all the worry she felt was bubbling inside of her.

“He’s going to be fine.”

His tone, unlike Ralph and Cisco’s when they were trying to convince her in her lab, was soft, but brokered no argument. He wasn’t trying to win her over—he was stating a fact that they both knew. Frost _was_ trying to save his life. It _was_ an accident. A frustrated sound left her throat. “I _know_ he’ll be fine,” Caitlin said, nearly growling. “But it was _my_ fault that he got hurt in the first place! Frost and I, there’s all this guilt because if we had been more careful, if we had just held on for another second, Cisco wouldn’t—”

She broke off then, trying to rein in her emotions. Barry took one look at her face and sighed, tugging her toward him until she stumbled forward into his arms, her face burrowing into his chest. He could feel the slight tremors now that she was pressed up against him.

There wasn’t really anything he could say that would make her feel better. What had happened, happened, and she was going to carry the guilt for a while even if it had been an accident, even if it wasn’t her fault in trying to save him. But, he thought as he gently rubbed her back, trying to soothe her, even if he couldn’t carry her guilt, well, he’d just have to carry her through it.

* * *

_Monday_

The moment Caitlin stepped out of her apartment, she came face to face with a small, rectangular box laying inconspicuously at her feet. It was shiny; the box was covered in a pretty, shimmery blue foil complete with a white ribbon, and, of course, no note on top. She cautiously glanced up and down the corridor, nudging Frost awake.

“Think it’s safe?” she murmured to herself, Frost now at full attention.

_Hear any ticking?_

Caitlin would have snorted if it hadn’t been a serious question; as it was, she leaned closer to the box, holding her breath. “Nope.”

Her hand stretched out, curiosity winning her over after verifying that it wasn’t, in fact, a bomb.

_Caity, wait._

She paused.

_Maybe we should switch. Just in case anything happens._

“But if something does happen…you might get hurt,” Caitlin whispered, frowning.

_I can access our powers faster. And if something does happen, I’ll just wait out the ice healing and switch back over to you…after we know what’s inside the box._

Frost had a point. “Be careful.”

Closing her eyes, her alter ego took her place; pale hands gingerly pulled the ribbon out of its neat bow and lifted the lid on the foil-covered box to reveal…

“Flowers?” Frost asked drily, raising an eyebrow.

 _I had nothing to do with this_.

A small cluster of white flowers tinged soft pink at the edge of the petals surrounded by smaller blue-purple blooms was placed inside the box, and a small folded square of cardstock with Caitlin’s name carefully written in a rather familiar handwriting on the top flap rested within the green stalks. Frost picked it up, smirking as she realized exactly whose handwriting it was.

“I think it’s for you.”

Without giving her counterpart a chance to react or protest, Frost retreated and Caitlin again appeared in the hallway, frantically looking around to make sure no one else had seen their exchange and transformations before turning her attention to the flowers still on the floor. She grabbed the whole box and put it on top of her coffee table, then carefully picked up the small card from among the leaves, flipping it open to see—

_Gentiana – Intrinsic worth_

_Alstroemeria – Devotion_

_You’re amazing. Don’t ever doubt yourself._

Her eyes narrowed in confusion, staring at the familiar handwriting that Frost was absolutely _guffawing_ about in the back of her head, but refusing to tell her the answer. Caitlin could _swear_ she had seen it somewhere, the answer just out of her reach—

And when it came to her about halfway into the drive to S.T.A.R. Labs, her cheeks burned with a sudden blush, and she bit her lip to contain her wide smile.

* * *

Of course, she didn’t really have a way to prove her theory, even if it was completely Barry’s M.O. to do something sweet and try to be secretive about it. The Cortex was empty when she walked in, which was kind of expected as she had sent Cisco home with Ralph watching over him to make sure he got some proper rest and didn’t overexert himself or his injuries by coming in to work. Barry was probably down in the Speed Lab, then.

He was hunched over the desk outside of the treadmill room, looking very much like he was in the middle of something. Not wanting to disrupt his train of thought, Caitlin quietly walked up to him, peeking around his shoulder to see him engrossed in a book.

“Light reading?” she asked teasingly. To her surprise, Barry jumped about a foot in the air, landing back on his feet while the book slipped out from his hands and fell onto the floor with a loud slap. Then, instead of picking it back up, he merely shuffled to the side and kicked the book farther under the table.

“ _Heyyyyy_ , Caitlin!” Barry exclaimed a little too loudly, reminiscent of the earliest days of their working relationship-friendship. Caitlin narrowed her eyes at him, glancing down at the book on the floor that she couldn’t really see before looking back at his face. He was giving her a smile that was _entirely_ too innocent for whatever he was doing to be nothing; Barry Allen was an open book, and she, of all people, was too adept at reading him to fall for any walls he might attempt to throw up in front of her.

To his credit, Barry knew this too, and opened his mouth to say something, presumably to cover his ass, when the meta alarm started blaring. His gaze snapped back to her, indecision written all over his face. Caitlin sighed.

“Go,” she told him, nodding her head toward the door. “Don’t worry, I won’t peek.”

A grin broke over his face then, and in a rush, he stepped forward and dropped a light kiss on her forehead before speeding out of the Speed Lab. Caitlin couldn’t help but smile; it wasn’t the first time he had done this, not since their friendship and dynamic had gradually and naturally shifted to that _something more_ , that in-between, but it still made her heart beat a little faster and feel all fluttery and warm nonetheless.

She said she wouldn’t peek, and _honestly_ she wasn’t trying to, but something else glinted on the floor right next to the book—a coin, probably one Barry dropped earlier—and caught her attention, and she accidentally read the name on the spine before she could avert her eyes.

_The Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History_

__

* * *

_Tuesday_

Knowing for sure that Barry was the one who left her the mysterious flowers at her front door made Caitlin feel a little lighter the next day, both surprised and yet…not surprised…when she opened her apartment door the next morning to see another neatly-wrapped box on her doorstep, her face splitting into such a wide grin that she could feel Frost roll her eyes at her (fondly, of course. Nothing could really come between the two of them now). She brought it back inside and set it on her coffee table, her deft fingers attacking the pretty orange wrapping before she could open the box to see a different mini-arrangement—a long stalk of gorgeous orange flowers surrounded by three smaller white flowers with lengthy, splayed petals, and even smaller clumps of little white flowers surrounding the entire thing.

She flipped open the small card with her name on the front.

_Edelweiss – Noble courage_

_Gladiolus – You pierce my heart_

_Spirea – Victory_

_I’d bet on you, every time._

* * *

“What’s got you in such a good mood?”

Caitlin turned in her swivel chair with a mouthful of noodles currently occupying said mouth. Barry almost laughed out loud, but she swallowed her food (with great difficulty) and set her plate down, pulling the other containers out of the plastic bag on her desk.

“What makes you think I’m in a good mood?” she asked, grabbing another set of take-out chopsticks. “I bought your favorites too.”

“You were humming when I saw you in the Cortex earlier.” He grinned and planted a kiss on her forehead before digging in. “You’re the best.”

Caitlin looked at him thoughtfully. “Hmm. Well, I got flowers from someone this morning. They’re really pretty, and they made me really happy, so I suppose I _am_ in a good mood,” she teased.

He didn’t mean to, but Barry Allen wore his heart on his sleeve, and there was just no masking his sudden interest and excitement. “Oh?”

“Yeah,” she continued, sighing dramatically. “If only there was some way to let them know how much I loved them. The—the flowers, I mean,” Caitlin corrected herself, immediately sitting ramrod straight and blushing.

Barry laughed out loud then, a full-on laugh that had the corners of her lips quirking upwards too. He was totally onto her; he knew she knew it was him, however she figured it out. Not that he was going to own up to it, not just yet. “I’m sure he already knows,” he responded cheekily.

“Oh, I don’t know. Did I mention it was a he?” Caitlin quipped, and with an indignant squawk from Barry and light flush from his cheeks and down his neck, he stole the dumpling from her plate in retaliation.

“ _Hey_!”

* * *

_Wednesday_

Caitlin excitedly rushed to the door, feeling a little silly for the giddiness that she felt at the prospect of seeing another box, if the past two days were anything to go by. She was not disappointed when another small rectangular box, wrapped in a gauzy white material, greeted her on her doorstep.

Pulling open the outer wrapping, she opened the box to another arrangement—a single white flower and two smaller, pale pink blossoms with extended pink pistils tied to the base of the white bloom—and another card bearing her name on the front.

_White carnations – Sweet and lovely_

_Saxifraga – Affection_

_Someone asked for a description of Caitlin Snow in five words or less_

Caitlin hummed a little, not even bothering to contain the smile on her face as she put the flowers into a small glass and asked herself—how would she describe Barry Allen in five words or less?

* * *

_Thursday_

Thursday was heralded by a cloudy morning, but it was business as usual for Caitlin—wake up, brush her teeth, get dressed, grab breakfast on the go and head back to S.T.A.R. Labs to save Central City. Before that, though…

A box, a smaller one than usual, waited for her just outside her door. Wrapped in a simple golden sash tied into a pretty bow at the top, the box lid came off to reveal two stalks of blue and white flowers with long petals, surrounded by a smattering of smaller, white-petaled flowers with a yellow center.

_Blue hyacinths – Constancy_

_White hyacinths – Beauty_

_Feverfew – Warmth_

_Summer days, drifting away to oh, oh those summer nights_.

* * *

_Friday_

Caitlin snorted, and suddenly receded into herself so that Frost took her place.

“ _Hey_!” Frost said, her tone between a growl and a yell as she appeared in front of the box at the kitchen table. “Some warning would be nice!”

There was no response from Caitlin, but a wave of amusement nudged her to look down at the smaller-than-usual box containing a carefully placed handful of smallish lilac flowers with long, stringy petals surrounding the yellow pistil. The usual accompanying card in Barry’s obvious handwriting had her name on it this time, and Frost reached out to flip it open, her head tilting to the side in her curiosity.

_Ice plant – Your looks freeze me ;)_

She gazed at the little flowers in awe, then cleared her throat and fondly rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure this is his idea of a joke.”

_Yeah, but it’s sweet anyway._

Frost didn’t respond, but she smiled, and retreated as she pulled Caitlin forward to take over once again.

* * *

Imagine Caitlin’s surprise when she got to her lab to find a single, rather large flower the size of her palm sitting smack dab in the middle of her desk. The pistil extended upwards on a long stem from the heart of the bloom, a dark pink color fading to wide peach-pink petals in a beautiful ombre. Laying just next to it was another folded card with her name on it.

_Hibiscus – Delicate beauty_

_You’re beautiful._

She smiled so wide, feeling a blush burn on her cheeks as she carefully put the flower aside so that she could start her day’s work.

* * *

“Barry!”

He nearly jumped when Caitlin called his name and put her hand on his shoulder, completely spaced out as he stared at the screens in the Cortex. Looking back at her, he shook himself out of his thoughts with a small grin that Caitlin could see didn’t actually reach his eyes.

“Sorry. Yeah, Cait?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you okay? You seem a little…out of it.”

“Yeah,” Barry responded immediately, not fooling anyone. She clearly wasn’t convinced, so he just tried to smile and pulled her into a quick hug, dropping a kiss on her temple.

“Are you trying to distract me?” Caitlin asked bluntly, still smiling against his shoulder nonetheless as she wrapped her arms around him. She felt his lips curl upwards against her hair though, so whatever was bothering him…she hoped it would take his mind off of it for a few minutes, at least.

“Is it working?”

Caitlin just tightened her hold on Barry, feeling him do the same, clinging to each other just a little bit longer.

* * *

_Saturday_

Saturdays were lazy days, and for once, Caitlin had no plans when she woke up that morning, stretching and yawning. Simply deciding to enjoy the day curled up on her couch with a nice book and copious mugs of tea and Thai takeout, she walked out the door to grab her mail before the relaxation commenced and was greeted by a box she wasn’t expecting at her feet. Even on an early Saturday morning, Barry never failed to make her smile.

She opened the box wrapped in a sheer green wrapping to find a small bunch of peach-colored flowers on long green stalks. Her card was written in a scrawled cursive today.

_Stock – You will always be beautiful to me_

_Hoping your weekend is as lovely as you are._

Caitlin shyly hugged the card to her chest, Frost teasing her all the while.

_You’ve got it so bad for Flash, Caity._

Getting to know Barry, seeing him at his highest and his lowest and the way he was always so willing to help other people, seeing the way he was a hero in and out of the suit, seeing his resolve and his insistence and his anger and his understanding and his laughter and his tears—how could Caitlin not have feelings for him? How could those feelings not grow to what they were now, with an intensity that almost scared her, one she wasn’t quite ready to admit to yet?

It wasn’t anything new, and it wasn’t as if Frost had never said that to her before, but the mention of Barry suddenly also brought back his odd behavior from the day before.

“Did he seem weird to you yesterday?” she murmured, putting the bunch of flowers into a tall glass of water.

_I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I tune out whenever you two have your alone time._

Caitlin bit her lip, thinking hard. Her phone vibrated on the counter then—a text from Cisco and a picture from Ralph—before the notifications blinked away to reveal her lock screen, a picture of the hibiscus flower she had gotten from Barry yesterday as the background underneath the date and time. The answer came to her all at once, why Barry had been so out of it yesterday, why he always had a hard time getting through this time of year.

She immediately unlocked her phone, pulled google up on her browser and dialed a number.

“ _Central City Florist, how can I help you_?”

* * *

_Sunday_

With everything set for Monday, Caitlin could breathe a little easier. She decided on Netflix and pizza for dinner, having stayed at home the entirety of the weekend to unwind (and after Rainfell and Cisco and getting stabbed last week, she could use the break).

Someone knocked on her door.

“Coming!” she called from the kitchen, grabbing her wallet to pay for her food. To her immense surprise, instead of the pizza guy standing at her door, another box with a powdery blue wrapping today was at her doorstep. Caitlin raised her eyebrows, looking up and down the hall to see if she could catch a glimpse of who left it (Barry—but he was probably long gone by then, fastest man in the world proven several times over).

She unwrapped the box on her coffee table, its contents revealed to be a bunch of tiny lavender flowers mixed into a bunch of tiny white and yellow flowers, extended from the stem like trumpets before the two petals splayed wide open to reveal the long white pistils in the middle.

_Speedwell – Fidelity_

_Honeysuckle – Devotion_

There wasn’t an extra note with this card, but Caitlin couldn’t possibly have a bigger smile on her face.

* * *

_Monday_

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Barry had taken the day off Monday, leaving Ralph in the Cortex and a freshly-somewhat-recovered Cisco (on crutches) in his beloved workshop. Caitlin texted Cisco earlier that morning to not expect her in the Lab today, and he only replied with a grimacing emoji and a heart. Like clockwork, she got into her car at 8:30am, and then was off until she parked in front of a very familiar apartment complex, riding an elevator she had ridden tons of times before, and standing in front of a very familiar door. Adjusting her hold on the bulky thing in her hands, she raised her fist to knock when the door swung open, Barry Allen himself stepping out and nearly crashing into her.

“Caitlin?!”

She grinned sheepishly back at him. “Hi, Barry.”

Taking a step back, their gazes swept down the other, making sure they were all right and collecting themselves before they zeroed in on the rather large bouquets in each of their hands. Barry was holding a sizeable bunch of pure red roses, while Caitlin herself had an array of flowers she had customized and requested after spending nearly an hour on the phone with the florist. The final result was a beautiful bouquet of pink and red carnations, dotted with bunches of baby’s breath and chervil flowers. White cypress flowers were delicately placed in strategic spots, creating a beautiful mesh of white and pink and red.

Barry raised an eyebrow at her. “Those for me?” he tried to joke, though she could see he was already having a hard time trying to lighten the atmosphere.

“Barry…” Caitlin started uncertainly, then took a fortifying breath. “These, um, are…they’re for your mom.”

His mouth fell open as he gaped at her, slowly processing her words. Eventually, she started fidgeting, biting her bottom lip. Had she overstepped? Had she been too straightforward? Maybe he didn’t want her involved in any of this, maybe this was just too personal of a time for him to share with her just yet, maybe this was just between him and—

“Thank you,” Barry eventually choked out, his eyes misting over. He looked at the flowers with a soft expression on his face, then turned back to her and reached out with his free hand, giving hers a quick squeeze. “They’re beautiful. And appreciated.”

Caitlin, still biting her lip, was about to hand him the bouquet when he suddenly said, “Do you want to come with me?”

* * *

_Henry Allen Nora Allen  
1955-2016 1959-2000_

_Beloved_

Barry squatted down to lay his bouquet down between his parents’ graves, Caitlin’s placed just underneath his roses. His hand gently brushed against the gravestones in tender affection.

“Hey mom, dad,” he said softly. “It’s me.” Standing up to his full height, he put an arm around Caitlin’s shoulders. “And Caitlin. She came to say hi.”

It was so strange, feeling shy in that graveyard in front of Barry’s parents. “Hello,” she said quietly.

The wind picked up a little, the sky covered in gray clouds. Caitlin felt the slight change in the atmosphere, and put her hand on his shoulder. “Take your time,” she murmured, grasping his shoulder comfortingly and then letting go. Barry managed a nod before she turned and walked away, wandering among the neat grave markers. These were well taken care of, fresh flowers on every plot that she could see. She wondered how many people came here to pay their respects, to visit their loved ones; she wondered how many of those people were unable to move on, tied down to the past. She thought about Ronnie’s grave with an empty casket on the other side of this graveyard, thought about how she hadn’t stopped by since the first time her fiancé’s casket was buried. What would Ronnie think of her now, having come so far?

She wondered how many of these graves were forgotten, remembered only by those who painstakingly put flowers on there in respect. How many stories ended here? A morbid question, perhaps, but the flowers and the trees and the grass that flourished here were proof that new beginnings could grow from the ends.

A rumble jolted her out of her thoughts.

 _Looks like it’s gonna rain_.

“Yeah,” Caitlin agreed quietly, turning around and heading back to where she had left Barry. He was on his knees in front of his parents’ graves, one hand resting on his mother’s gravestone, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Some hurts, she knew, went too deep to ever completely heal. She carefully walked over to him, giving him time to adjust to her presence.

“There isn’t a day I don’t miss them,” Barry said softly a minute later, though he didn’t look at her. Caitlin crouched down next to him, putting a warm hand on his arm.

“They’d be proud of you, Barry,” she told him honestly. “Your dad was so proud of you. I know your mom would be too.”

He let out an audible breath, finally looking up at the gray sky before he turned back to face her, and she gave him a small smile as her hands came up to his jaw, holding him gently. They stayed that way for a moment, and then the first drop of rain plopped onto Caitlin’s nose, startling her into letting Barry go and falling backwards onto the grass, now dewy with the humid atmosphere.

It drew a laugh out of him though, and he stood up, holding his hand out to her with his trademark boyish grin back on his face. Barry’s eyes were still rimmed red and there were still signs of exhaustion clearly written on his face, but having this afternoon to remember and grieve was cathartic, the weight on his shoulders a little lighter. Grinning right back at him, Caitlin took his hand without hesitation and he pulled her up, giving her hand a tight squeeze. Barry looked back at his parents’ names one last time, then steeled himself, nodding.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something, the sky opened up in earnest, and the rain came down on them _hard_. Within a few seconds, they were completely drenched.

“ _Seriously_?” Barry almost grumbled, his shoulders slumping back down in defeat. Caitlin had an angry pout on her face that looked eerily like Frost when she was kind of upset, and then her eyes glowed a piercing blue and her hair turned white as she raised her hand up.

“I am _done_ being wet and miserable, _damnit_!”

 _You know, you could just let me drive and you could sleep, then you won’t even feel the rain instead of making it snow…or hail…all over Central City._ _You know, when it’s almost spring_.

Barry watched in amusement as Frost grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, “she’s your problem now, Flash” before her white hair melted back into brown and Caitlin emerged, fighting back a smile at her alter ego’s antics. “Sorry!” she apologized. “Rainfell really did a number on her. We really should get out of this rain though!”

“Yeah,” he yelled back, loud enough to be heard over the sudden storm. “My apartment is closer, is that okay?”

As soon as she nodded, Barry effortlessly scooped her up like he had so many times before and ran off, a trail of scarlet lightning in his wake.

* * *

“Whew,” Barry blew out a quick breath, unlocking his door and letting Caitlin in before he turned back to lock it again, running his hands through his hair to get some of the rainwater out. “Man, that storm came out of nowhere; I’m really sorry you got caught in it with me, you didn’t have to—”

“Uh…Barry?”

Said superhero turned to face her, but she wasn’t even looking at him. Following her line of sight, he immediately felt his cheeks burn red, seeing the mess all over his apartment.

A ‘mess’ didn’t actually mean a mess, but he definitely did not consider what his apartment would look like when his only thought just a minute ago was to get them out of the downpour. There were flowers all over his apartment—on the countertops, on the dining table, on the chairs, on the window ledges, in vases; there were flowers on basically every surface.

“Uh—sorry,” he mumbled. She already knew the flowers and notes were from him, but having her _here_ , having her see it, made it all real, made it all concrete. Like he couldn’t take it back. Not that he wanted to anyway, but having her see it herself made it a _fact_. They had been dancing around each other so long now, just waiting for the opportune moment for their relationship to change, but this felt like everything was coming into the light, like there could be no more hiding after this.

Caitlin stood in the doorway with her mouth still hanging open…and her hair and clothes wet and dripping onto the hardwood. Concern snapped Barry out of his trance, on the off chance that Caitlin could even catch a cold. “Here, Cait,” he said, pulling her to his bedroom and grabbing a t-shirt and a pair of sweats, handing them to her. “We’ll just, uh, throw your wet clothes in the dryer. In the meantime, you can put these on.”

She thanked him as he closed the bedroom door behind him on his way out, switching places with him after she was done so he could change. The sweatpants’ legs were a little too long and the shirt was definitely too big, but they were soft and comfortable and absolutely heavenly after being in her completely drenched clothes. Wandering back out to his living room, she admired the array of flowers that were present, awed at the sheer number of flowers that were there.

“See something you like?” Barry teased when he came back into the room, the dryer humming in the background alongside the sounds of falling rain outside the apartment. Caitlin grinned back at him, her gaze caught on the beautiful bouquet of pink and purple roses sitting on his coffee table along with a very familiar-looking card.

She walked over, with him following just behind her. “These are beautiful.”

Embarrassed, Barry blushed, putting a hand behind his head. “These were…supposed to be your flowers for today,” he admitted. There was no way Caitlin couldn’t smile at that, and he didn’t protest when she reached down to grab the card with her name carefully printed on it and flipped it open.

_Pink roses – Grace_

_Purple roses – Enchantment_

_So much to tell you—let’s start with these two :)_

“Barry,” she said, turning back to look at him, “thank you so much for the flowers. All of the ones you gave me the past week. And for making me feel better.”

He chuckled, looking down at the floor before meeting her eyes. “Well…those weren’t the only flowers I was going to give you.”

The inflection in his tone and his insinuation made Caitlin widen her eyes, looking around the room of flowers and then back at him, and the smug superhero had the gall to grin and nod.

“You mean…these are for me?” she asked, gaping. Barry nearly laughed when he nodded again, reveling in her expression. Almost shyly, she peeked up at him through her eyelashes. “Will you tell me what they mean?”

It wasn’t news, but that moment, Barry came face to face with just how much trouble he was in with her. They had flown from acquaintances to friends in his early days as the Flash, and their relationship just kept building and building and building until he woke up one day with the cliched realization that he was head over heels, completely in love with one of his best friends. It wasn’t like his feelings for Iris growing up where he cared about her, admired her, looked up to her, or for Patty where he simply adored her and watched her kick ass every day at CCPD. This was slower, deeper, in equal parts scary and exciting. He felt all those things for her—concern, admiration, adoration, and there was no mistaking the fact that Caitlin Snow was a badass even without having Frost take over—but like the day he discovered his speed, the belonging and certainty he felt as he blew past people and buildings and cars with the wind whipping through his hair, with Caitlin, he felt the same belonging, the same certainty.

“Which one?” he asked with a smile.

Caitlin bit her lip, eyes glinting with excitement, and then pointed to a bunch of cheery, bright yellow blooms.

“These are daffodils,” Barry said, walking over to them. “They mean ‘new beginning’.”

Her eyebrow playfully quirked up at that. “How long did it take you to learn all this?” she asked, letting out a laugh at his sheepish expression. She looked around the room once more to find her next target—a cluster of little white blossoms with miniature pink pistils in the middle. “These?”

Carefully, Barry lifted the cluster closer to her so she could see all the small blossoms gathered together. “Hawthorn. They mean hope.”

Caitlin chose a bunch of smaller blue-lavender striped blooms next, the petals splayed out on top of the stalk and encasing it like a bubble. “This one…it’s called agapanthus,” Barry explained, his face a shade pinker. “It means ‘love letter’.”

There was no hiding her blush that time, and by the time Caitlin chose her next flower, Barry couldn’t either. He looked at the pale pink flowers she approached and had to swallow past his suddenly dry throat to say, “Camellia flowers.” He took her hand. “They mean ‘my destiny is in your hands’.”

Barry had the prettiest green eyes, Caitlin knew, but at this moment when they looked right into hers, they were so vulnerable and open and screaming out words that neither of them could actually say…yet. The intensity of his gaze was taking her breath away, and she fought to anchor herself in this moment that was so perfect it didn’t even feel real to not miss a single second of the time she had with him. Smiling, Barry gently let go of her hand so she could wander and look for her next target.

A branch of delicate pink blooms caught her eye. “What about these?”

“These are quince flowers,” he replied, and she could swear his tone sounded a touch deeper, his eyes turning a shade darker as he said, “temptation.”

The atmosphere shifted from playful and shy to something thrumming, expectant. They both felt it, as if the universe were lying in wait for something to happen. Caitlin pointed at the flowers just next to the quince flowers—needlessly, because this one, this one she knew. “What are those?” she whispered.

Without even breaking eye contact with her, Barry answered, tone just as quiet. “Red roses. They mean love.”

At this point, both of them were hardly daring to breathe, everything in this one moment building up and up, waiting for the moment to crest and crash over them. Seeing a small, inconspicuous cluster of delicate white flowers she had missed earlier, Caitlin wandered over, Barry trailing faithfully behind her. “And these?” she asked breathlessly, looking back into his eyes.

He stepped even closer to her then, his hand reaching for hers and linking their fingers together. “These,” he said with a smile. “are my favorite. These are snowdrops, meaning consolation and hope.”

“Oh.” Caitlin felt a wave of dizziness wash over her; between the heady scent of the flowers in the apartment and the absolute giddiness she felt, she wasn’t sure whether she was feeling light-headed because she was so happy or because she felt like she couldn’t breathe, looking into his eyes that held hers so gently. “Snowdrops. That’s my last name.”

She could have smacked herself on the forehead for blurting something like that out, but she couldn’t think straight, not with him so close, this moment closing around them so tightly. Barry actually chuckled, tugging her closer.

“Yeah, that might have something to do with it.”

And those were the last words he said before he leaned forward, or she leaned forward, and somewhere between the snowdrops and the daffodils, they shared the kiss that was the beginning of all the other ones to come.

**Author's Note:**

> Quick trivia: Barry brought a bouquet of red roses to his mother's grave because the thing he wanted to tell her was simply that he loves her :'(
> 
> Caitlin's bouquet means: baby's breath (everlasting love), pink carnations (I will never forget you), red carnations (my heart breaks), chervil flowers (sincerity), and white cypress flowers (mourning)
> 
> Did y'all catch the KH/LOTR references? No? That's okay. The biggest thank-you and ALL the credit goes to Hans (Purpleyin) for the lovely graphics and for just being so amazing.


End file.
